A PROMISE TO KEEP: 5%
A Ballot Committee of
Citizens for Limited Taxation & Government
PO Box 408 * Peabody, MA 01960
Phone:(617) 248-0022 /(508) 538-3900 E-Mail: cltg@cltg.org
Visit our web-page at: http://cltg.org
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*** Promise Update ***
Monday, November 24, 1997
REMEMBER: Today at 5:00 PM is the absolute deadline for getting any petitions still in your possession with signatures from City of Boston voters and Boston "neighborhoods"(*ONLY*) to the Boston registrar of voters at Boston City Hall.
If you still have signatures from above Boston voters and can’t get them to Boston City Hall, but *can* get by the Boston office, call Chip Faulkner *IMMEDIATELY* at (617) 248-0022.
Chip Ford—
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NEWS ADVISORY
Monday, November 24, 1997
CONTACT: Chip Ford - (978) 538-3900
Barbara Anderson - (617) 248-0022
Extra Precautions taken with Certified Petitions
"Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it."
Our volunteer citizen-activists across the state ask you to remember Secretary of State Galvin’s errors and dubious mistakes that led to the inaccurate reports of two years ago— and might well have doomed an otherwise highly-successful petition drive.
In 1995, a day before our volunteer pick-up drivers were set to collect our certified petitions from the 351 city and town clerks across the state, Secretary of State William F. Galvin prematurely and erroneously pronounced that the Coalition for Payraise Repeal had failed to collect a sufficient number of signatures.
*The media reported this as fact.*
*Those news reports of Galvin’s inaccurate statement had consequences.* As our volunteers must take a day or two off from work, this false and premature announcement created unprecedented confusion in the final—and critical—days of our effort and required us to scramble to assure them that they weren’t wasting their time.
A few days later, after we delivered almost 25,000 more certified signatures than necessary to the Secretary of State’s Elections Division, Secretary Galvin announced that we had nowhere near a sufficient number of signatures for success.
*The media reported this too as fact.*
After our immediate public response, the next morning an entire box of our certified petitions was mysteriously "found" by the Secretary of State’s office, having been strangely "misplaced".
"We have the highest regard for the Elections Division professionals, John Cloonan and staff, who have always done an excellent and objective job," said Chip Ford, Co-Chairman of A Promise to Keep; 5%. "We trusted former Secretary Michael Connolly, but these weird occurrences under Secretary Galvin call for increased vigilance and security on the part of petitioners."
Citizens for Limited Taxation & Government, besides providing its detailed town-by-town spreadsheet statewide total, will take unprecedented precautions to ensure the security of its petition drive results after delivery of the income tax rollback signatures to the Secretary of State on December 3rd. These extraordinary precautions will include video-tape, photocopies, and photographs of the certified petitions.
[Sidebar insert]:
The Boston Herald
Saturday, December 9, 1995
Galvin slammed for misplacing petitions
Legislative pay-cut advocate Barbara Anderson yesterday said she was furious with Secretary of State William F. Galvin for saying his office had temporarily misplaced boxes of their ballot petitions. Anderson said Galvin was trying to "cover up" for giving preliminary figures showing the pay-cut proponents needed a lot more signatures.
Anderson colleague former state Rep. Royall Switzler said Galvin might have wanted to cast aspersions on their cause and revived Galvin’s former nickname in the Legislature, "the Prince of Darkness."
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You can e-mail A Promise to Keep: 5% at --> cltg@cltg.org
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